The Bodyguard's Promise

“A taxi got me here just fine.”

Her cell phone rang a musical tune and a tight apologetic smile lifted her lips as she opened it to answer. The smile didn’t quite reach her eyes, which remained cool and distant.

“Hello?” The frown that cut across her forehead did nothing to detract from her attractiveness. “No. I told you no before and I’m telling you no again. I decide what she’ll do and what she won’t do, and until they’re willing to come up with more money, the answer will remain no.” She closed the phone and set it on the marble-topped counter of the bar.

“Sorry about that,” she said as she rejoined Clay, her orange juice in hand as she sat on the opposite end of the sofa. “I understand you just flew in from Las Vegas.”

Clay nodded.

She leaned back against the white cushion, her gaze meeting his with a hint of belligerence. “I have to tell you, Clay, this whole thing wasn’t my idea. Gracie’s agent, Charles Wheeler set it into motion.” Those gorgeous eyes of hers flickered over him in assessment. “Are you good at what you do?”

“Very.”

She nodded, as if satisfied. “Charlie didn’t want to use anyone local. Things are going well and we can’t afford any troubling publicity. He told me he worked with your father years ago and remembered he’d left Hollywood and started up some sort of bodyguard business.”

“Wild West Protective Services,” Clay said. Clay knew his father had come to Hollywood as a young man and had done some stunt work in several films. It was only when Red West had met and married Clay’s mother that he’d decided to move back to Oklahoma to start a family and the bodyguard business.

The cell phone rang and she leaped up to retrieve it from the bar, once again flashing Clay an apologetic but tense smile.

“Tell them she’s worth ten times that.” Her blue eyes flashed with cold calculation. “Listen, Charlie, don’t bother me again with this penny-ante stuff. Until you have a reasonable offer, don’t waste your time or mine.” This time she carried the phone with her and dropped it on the coffee table before sitting once again across from Clay.

“I’m sorry for the interruptions. We’re in the process of fielding several offers and things always get tense during negotiations.”

“Look, I’m functioning at a disadvantage here,” Clay said. “I’m not sure why you need our services. When my brother called me to come out here, he didn’t give me any details.”

“To be perfectly honest, I think we’re overreacting to the whole situation. This sort of thing happens all the time in this industry and nobody gets too excited, but Charlie, Gracie’s agent, decided it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Libby took a sip of her orange juice and Clay tamped down a growing edge of impatience. He was tired and getting cranky, and he just wanted to know the details of this assignment. He didn’t care about negotiations and big deals.

“What situation, Ms. Bryant?”

“Please, make it Libby.” She set her empty glass on the coffee table and stood. She began to pace in front of where Clay sat, moving with sleek, sinewy movements. “Since her last movie, Gracie is on a roll. She’s suddenly a hot commodity. We’re in the process of finishing her latest movie, there’s a couple of commercials to be shot in the next couple of weeks and there’s even talk of some endorsement deals.”

He suspected Libby was a relative of the successful starlet, maybe a sister serving as a business manager? If Gracie Bryant looked anything like Libby, then she was the epitome of Hollywood’s standard of perfect, heart-stopping blond bombshell.

“Anyway,” she continued. “At first the letters that came were like the usual fan letters, but in the last couple of weeks they’ve gotten weird and ugly. I told Charlie that this kind of thing is to be expected with anyone in the public eye, but he insisted better safe than sorry.”

So, it would seem that they were dealing with some troubling fan mail and nothing more, he thought. “Have you contacted the local authorities?”

Libby stopped her pacing and Clay breathed a sigh of relief. Watching her, with her long legs and full breasts, walking back and forth in front of him, had been distracting, to say the least.

“Yes. They gave us the usual spiel about being overworked and underpaid. The officer made a report then asked for an autographed photo. I’ve hired a private investigator to try to find out the source of the letters. What I’d like from you is simply to pretend to be Gracie’s friend and keep an eye on her, assure her safety until the investigator gets to the bottom of things.”

Clay had a feeling this particular assignment was going to be a piece of cake. If the only thing they were dealing with was a bunch of letters written by an unhinged fan, the odds were in their favor that nothing dangerous would come of it.

“I guess the next step is for me to meet Gracie, then I’ll need to see the letters,” Clay said.

She nodded. “I’ll go get Gracie and I’ll have her secretary gather up all the letters we’ve received to date.”

As she left the room Clay stood and breathed a deep sigh of relief. She might not be middle-aged but he had the definite feeling she could be a ball-buster and it was obvious she wasn’t particularly pleased he was here. Her problem, not his.

He walked to the window once again and saw a gardener clipping bushes around the fancy gazebo. The area surrounding the house was no less impressive than the house itself. When the taxi had pulled up in front of the security gates Clay had thought the place was a hotel or a museum rather than a private residence.

Palm trees swayed in a faint breeze and near the house several hydrangea bushes exploded in shades of blue and purple.

People didn’t live like this in Cotter Creek, Oklahoma. A fierce longing for home filled him. Clay’s father’s large rambling ranch house was always filled with people. Right about now Smokey, the cook and housekeeper, would be in the kitchen, bustling around to fix the evening meal. Clay’s dad would probably be in the garden and at any given time his brothers, sister and his sister-in-law would wander in for a cup of coffee and some chatter.

It had been ages since Clay had spent any real time at home. For the last couple of months, business had boomed and he’d gone from one job to the next without any real downtime in between. There had been no time for women or fun or anything but work.

Hopefully, the investigator who had been hired would discover that the author of the disturbing letters was a housebound, ninety-year-old man who was incapable of following through on any threat he might have penned. And hopefully the investigator would come to that conclusion quickly so that Clay could get home.

“Gracie will be right down,” Libby said as she returned to the room. She picked up her glass from the coffee table and went back to the bar. “Sure I can’t get you something?” she asked.

“No thanks, I’m fine.” He turned his gaze to the door as he heard the sound of approaching footsteps.

A little girl appeared in the doorway. Clay guessed her age to be between seven and eight and she looked like a little fairy princess. Long blond hair framed a heart-shaped face and lively blue eyes gazed at him with friendly curiosity.

There were three things in life Clay wasn’t particularly fond of: snakes, storms and children. He smiled politely as the little girl approached where he sat.

“Hello,” she said, and smiled prettily. “My name is Gracie, what’s your name?”

Gracie? His heart dropped to his feet. This baby girl was Gracie? She was his next assignment? Oh, hell no! No way. He’d call Tanner and get somebody else out here to do this job. This definitely wasn’t for him.

“This is Bunny,” the little girl said, and for the first time Clay noticed she clutched a raggedy stuffed pink bunny in one arm. “She’s my friend.”

“She looks like a nice friend,” Clay replied. He couldn’t wait to get a minute alone to call his brother. He’d never worked with a kid before. Hell, he’d never even spent any time around a kid.

It wasn’t that he hated kids, he just hadn’t ever given them much thought. He had no nieces or nephews, no children at all in his world.

“My mommy says you’re going to be my new friend and you never told me your name.” She scooted next to Clay onto the sofa and gazed up at him with eyes the color of the Oklahoma sky. It was instantly clear to Clay what the connection was between Libby and Gracie. Gracie was a miniature carbon copy of Libby.

“Clay. My name is Clay.”

“I like that name,” she replied. As the little girl once again smiled up at him, Clay felt a sinking feeling in his heart. He wasn’t going to call his brother and get another assignment. If somebody was threatening this baby girl with her innocent eyes and pretty little smile, then he was right where he needed to be. Guarding Gracie had just become his new mission.

Clay West was nothing like what she’d expected. When Charlie had mentioned hiring somebody to keep an eye on Gracie, Libby had assumed it would be another Hollywood type, slick and polished to blend into any social situation.

He definitely wasn’t a Hollywood type. Although many men in Hollywood wore jeans, they wore designer brands coupled with expensive shirts, and always looked as if they were a little uncomfortable in the casual clothes.

This man, this cowboy from Oklahoma, wore his jeans as if he’d been born in them. They fit his lean, long legs as if especially made by the best tailor money could buy. His dress shirt, while adequate, strained across broad shoulders she suspected had come through hard work rather than hours in a gym. Dusty cowboy boots rode his feet, boots she thought probably weren’t strangers to mud or manure.

But it wasn’t his dress that disturbed her. And it wasn’t that his hair was dark as night and on the wrong side of a haircut. It was his eyes that bothered her, beautiful green eyes that held a whisper of arrogance, a touch of aloofness and a hint of judgment that made her both wary and defensive.

The living room was huge, but something about his presence made the walls close in. As long as he remembered who was working for whom, they would get along just fine, she thought.

“Mommy, is Mr. Clay a director?” Gracie asked.

Libby smiled at her daughter, her heart expanding with love. “No, sweetie. He’s just a friend who’s going to be staying with us for a little while.”